Well good morning to each and every one of you. Before we dive into the text, let us pray.

“Father in heaven, we thank You once again for another opportunity to study Your Word from Ephesians. And we ask now that You will grant us the help of the Holy Spirit that we may be humble, that we have a clear mind to understand the words that You want to tell us. All these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This morning we finally arrive at the applicational portion of Ephesians. After about six or seven sermons in the first three chapters which is the doctrinal part, we finally come to chapter 4, which is the first chapter of the applicational portion of this book. Now Paul has been labouring long and hard to inform us of important doctrines in the first three chapters. He started off in chapter 1 by declaring to us the spiritual blessings we have as Christians, as people of Christ, people of God. He then prayed for us that we may have enlightenment to know these important truths, this plan of salvation.

And then in chapter 2, you see that he then declares the two great contrasts of a believer, before and after he is a Christian. Before, the first contrast. Before, you were dead in your sins. But after, because of God by His grace, you are now alive. Before, you were separated. Because of your sins you were separated from God. But after, by the grace of God because of Christ, you are now united. You’re now part of God’s family, part of His kingdom. And then in chapter 3, Paul declares the mystery of Christ which was a mystery. It was not clear in the Old Testament, but now it’s no longer a mystery in the New Testament.

The mystery of Christ, that is the gospel of Jesus Christ, is no longer a mystery. It is clear what He did for us- His sacrifice, His atonement. And now in Christ, we have salvation. And at the end of chapter 3, Paul prays for enablement that now we may be able to live godly lives. He prays that the Holy Spirit would work through us in the inner man that Christ may dwell in our hearts that we may be filled with the fullness of God. And that’s why Paul begins here in chapter 4 with the word ‘therefore’. Therefore “walk worthy of the calling with which you were called”.

Now you are Christians. You have received the effectual call of God. His Spirit is in us, and we are now in this new position. A position of worth, a position of value. And therefore, we are to walk (which means to live in a righteous manner). And this is how Paul begins the second half of Ephesians, and that is how he continues all the way. He tells us how we ought to walk in the church here. And then in the subsequent chapters and verses, he tells us how to walk in the world, how we ought to walk in the family, how we ought to walk in our workplaces.

This morning, we are looking at Paul’s instructions to us as to how we are to walk in the church. Our sermon text this morning is Ephesians chapter 4, the first six verses. Let me read that for you. Ephesians chapter 4, reading from verse 1. “I, therefore, prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

Now the title of this sermon is “Church Unity (Part 1)”. I think it’s pretty obvious to your initial reading that Paul is talking about unity here. The main subject is on unity. And in fact, this same subject runs all the way to verse 16. And although I was initially planning to do all sixteen verses in one sitting, but I realised there was too much material to cover. And so there will be a second part to this very soon. Now three points to guide us now in our thinking as we look at this subject of unity through the lenses of Ephesians 4. Number one, what is church unity. Number two, church unity requires keeping. Number three, church unity is logical because of what we have in common.

Now when I talk about church unity here, I’m not referring to the modern ecumenical movement where Christians from all denominations, regardless you’re Roman Catholic or from a charismatic church or Methodist church. Well, we put aside all our beliefs and our differences and we come together united as one. Doesn’t matter if we disagree on the fundamentals of faith, we just cast those aside for the sake of unity. And what we find happens is usually the churches just agree on the bare minimum of truths, and which often results in the forsaking of fundamental doctrines of God and of Christ.

Now, this is wrong, and it’s not what Paul is talking about here. The text instructs us to keep the unity of the Spirit, but he never said to keep the unity at the expense of truth. Now Paul is also not saying in this letter that we should dissolve all the local churches and we merge everyone together in one big, centralised church. And then, we shall have church unity. Again we may think that there may be too many local churches. There is GRC here; there is Serdang Grace Reformed Baptist Church in Serdang. There’s probably another church across the road. Another church called probably First Subang in Subang Jaya church.

And what we have to do is now we have to dissolve all those churches because it seems a bit scattered and we merge them all together and have one leader at the top. Then, we can have church unity. Now if you read in Scripture, again this is not the pattern of the New Testament church. You read of the church in Corinth, in Antioch, in Philippi, and here in Ephesus, they’re all different local churches. And so the text here is also not calling for the abolishment of these local churches so that we may have church unity. Paul did not ask us to have the whole cluster of churches come together and to merge as one. What Paul again is saying here in verse 3 that we should “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit”.

Now notice here he is also not asking us to create a unity but rather to endeavour to keep it, that is to maintain it. Now, this unity is a unity that exists because of Christ. This is a unity that exists because of Christ. Paul has already told us in chapter 2 that Christ has already reconciled our differences. There’s no longer a Jew Christian or a Gentile Christian. In verse 14 of chapter 2, the middle wall of separation has been broken down. The law of the commandments contained in the ordinances, that is the ceremonial laws, have been abolished. We are now one new man, one building, one family. We are all part of the household of God. One body, one church. Because of Christ, there is this unity. There is this oneness that exists among God’s people.

And who are God’s people? Now God’s people are those who have the Holy Spirit indwelled in them. It is the Holy Spirit who regenerates us, who quickens us. It is the Holy Spirit that causes us to be born again, giving us new life. And if the Spirit is not in you, then you are not God’s people and you are not a Christian. But if the Spirit is in you, then you are in union with every spiritual man. And this is why Paul calls it in verse 3 the unity of the Spirit. This is the unity of the Spirit, the unity of all who has the Spirit in them.

Are you a true believer of Christ? You may have come to church this morning. You may have enjoyed the singing of hymns, enjoyed the fellowship of the saints. You may have listened to the same sermon as you have come to church every week. But if the Spirit is not in you; if you do not believe God’s Word; if you do not have faith in Christ and have not repented from your sins, then this church unity has nothing to do with you. But if you are in Christ; if you are a Christian, and there is a unity that exists for your keeping. There is a unity that exists among fellow Christians, regardless of where you are. And we are commanded here to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace”.

And because there is a unity among God’s people, there ought to be unity in the local church. Because there is unity among God’s people, there ought to be unity in the local church. It ought to be reflected here in the local church. In chapter 4, Paul is addressing this matter of unity to the church of Ephesus that they may endeavour to treat it with utmost importance to keep the unity of the Spirit.

Secondly, church unity requires keeping. Church unity requires keeping. I’ll read the first three verses again. Therefore- “I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”. Now although this is a unity created by Christ and cannot be broken, there is potential in us to really make a mess out of it.

Now church unity is not easy to keep. I could name many examples of disunity in various churches. But I think we do not have to look very far to find examples of disunity in the church. Just look at our own history. How many times have we faced disagreements which lead to arguments and end up in separations? It’s not to say that we have not seen unity here in GRC. I’m glad that there is unity in this church, and we have enjoyed a period of time of it. But our history is not perfect. The proud, aggressive, envious, sinful nature in us is just lurking somewhere.

And all it takes is a misunderstanding, a slip of a tongue, a brush of a shoulder before there’s disunity again in this church, given the realities of sin and given that there is a devil lurking and just waiting to pounce on every opportunity to cause disunity in the church. We must endeavour (that is to give due diligence to this topic) and try our very best to treat this as utmost importance to keep the unity of the Spirit. This unity is not going to maintain itself. Church unity is like a building that rests on the foundations of Christ.

But every now and then, this building may have a broken lamp, a wall where the paint has come off, or a roof that is leaking. And unless we attend to these defects of this building, it’s going to get worse. Unless we take church unity seriously and endeavour to maintain it, we are going to make shipwreck of this unity. Any local church that does not endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit, there will be divisions, fights, arguments, conflicts, separations. And ultimately, we dishonour God’s name. But if we take heed to what Paul is saying, that broken lamp can always be replaced, that wall can always be repainted, and the roof be mend again.

As children of God, we are members of the household of God and one body in Christ. And it is our responsibility to keep the unity of the Spirit. But now, how do we keep the unity of the Spirit? Verse 2, it says: “with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love”. Every member has a responsibility with conscious effort to bear with one another in love. And we are to bear with one another in the climate of lowliness (that is to be humble and meek), with gentleness (not to be aggressive), and with longsuffering (to be patient with one another). Because of sin, we all have the potential to irritate others.

Now some people have really sensitive senses even a sneeze can irritate them. Others probably lost all their senses, and I’m not so sure if that’s a good thing. I guess that can be irritating as well. But unless we have learned to deem our sensitivity; unless we have learned to bear with one another, these irritations will cause unhappiness and soon cause a crack in our unity. We ought to pray for help from the Lord that we may be humble people, not arrogant, that we may be patient and gentle. For example, if let’s say, brother Oliver, who is a very outspoken person. And every time he speaks or he teaches in a Bible study, maybe sometimes he may accidentally by the slip of the tongue say something bad about me or hurt my reputation.

But although my feelings are hurt, although my reputation or my image has been somewhat tarnished, I must pray with all earnestness that God will help me to be humble and longsuffering so that the unity of the Spirit can be maintained. I should not be aggressive and go to Oliver and start the argument with him. Instead of getting so angry easily, I should at least give him the benefit of doubt to remember that this is a brother who probably has my best interest and probably this was just a slip of his tongue.

Or in another example, let’s say a few of the church sisters wanted to organise a church picnic. Probably sister Nicole and sister Bryanna want to organise a church picnic. And after a lot of discussions and deliberation and planning, and they even got the consent of the elders, they finally announced to the church that two Saturdays from now, we will have a church picnic. And again lo and behold, I realised two Saturdays from now I have an exam, and there is dissatisfaction in my heart. How dare these two sisters leave me out from this church picnic! Do they remember how important I am? And then this irritation, this dissatisfaction starts to grow in my heart, not knowing the hard work these two sisters has done prior to the announcement of these dates.

Now, these are the things that can happen in the church. If we do not heed Paul’s instruction to be lowly and gentle, longsuffering, and bearing one another in love, simple things like a church picnic or a slip of the tongue can cause disharmony and disunity within the church. You must be humble that we care not only for our self-interest. We must be gentle when we deal with our fellow brothers and sisters. Our longsuffering must be such that we are not easily angered and our desires ought to be to keep the unity of the Spirit.

And finally, church unity is logical because of what we have in common. Church unity is logical because of what we have in common. Have you ever looked at your fellow Christians, fellow brothers and sisters beside you, and wondered what you have in common? Now some of us love sports, some don’t. Some of us are big in size, some of us are small in size. Some of us are working, some are students. Some married, some single. Now given all these differences, unity within the church seems illogical. By nature, we tend to group up with people whom we have something in common with. Just like those who love sports (let’s say football), they tend to group up and chat with one another.

Those who love politics also again would like to tend to group up and chat with one another. Maybe students you know having exams will also group up. Mothers with young children, probably they have also common interests there. And of course, this is not wrong. It’s logical. They have common ground. They share common interests or have common experience. But what about the church? What about believers? What do we have in common? Paul here gives us seven things which we have in common, and we’ll go through each of the seven things. We will not spend equal amount of time on all of them. Now some are quite easy to understand, but I shall try to explain more on those which are a bit more difficult to understand.

Again from verse 4: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”. There is one body. But some of you might say: No, there are many bodies. There is GRC, and there is Serdang Grace and CDPC in SS15. And then in Subang, there is a Subang First Baptist Church. There’s so many bodies. What is Paul talking about here? Well yes, there are individual bodies of local churches, but Paul here is not really referring to a specific local church because if he were to refer to local churches, he would say now there are many bodies.

Well, Paul here is referring to the invisible, universal church. It’s made up of true believers from every visible local church. Now the visible churches are made up of believers who visibly profess to be Christians. And sometimes our judgement fails, and we let in those who are not part of God’s kingdom into the church. But the invisible, universal church only consists of true believers. Visibly we have many denominations and local churches. Visibly many bodies, but the true church of God is invisibly, spiritually, and ultimately one body. As believers of Christ, we are all part of that one body, and this is the unity we have with all true believers. We are all one body, and this is what we have in common.

There is one Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit. If you believe the gospel, it’s because the Holy Spirit has first worked in your heart. If your friend believes the gospel, it is because of that one Holy Spirit that has worked in his heart. If your classmate believes the gospel, it’s because of that one Spirit that has worked in his or her heart. Anyone who believes the gospel believes it because of the same Holy Spirit that works in you and me. The Holy Spirit regenerates our heart which was once dead and causes us to be born again, enabling us to respond to the Word of God. The same Spirit that resides in me is the same Holy Spirit that resides in all believers. There is one Spirit.

There is also one hope that is a confident expectation of the consummation of our redemption at the second coming of Christ. Some people use the word ‘hope’ to refer to an outcome which may or may not happen. I hope next Saturday won’t rain so that I can play football. I hope my missing puppy will return one day. Or I hope the lockdown will be removed soon so that I could get my hair cut. So these are things which are not assured, may or may not happen. But as Christians, we all share this one hope that will happen, that will come to past. We all share this same hope that is the confident expectation that Christ will return. We are not there taking a deep breath and hoping that He will return, hoping for the best. We are all eagerly waiting for the time to come.

We are all hoping when the time will come where we will go to heaven and live eternally with our heavenly Father, where there will be no more pain, no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sin but there will be everlasting joy. And this is what we all hope in, this one hope which we share with all believers. Non-Christians, the people of the world do not share this same hope with us. They do not see this one hope. They may hope in other things. They may hope to get rich, get big cars. They may hope for a nice holiday or retirement. But apart from that, they do not hope anything else beyond death. But as Christians, we see what is beyond death, and we hope. We all share that same hope, that confident hope that Christ will return and we will be with Him someday.

There is one Lord, that is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There is only one Lord. There can never be a replacement for that one Lord. There can never be another like Him. He is entirely alone as to His uniqueness and His lordship. There is only one who is truly God and truly man at the same time. One Saviour, the reason why redemption was accomplished. The reason why there is unity. The one object of our faith, our one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There is one faith, that is the gospel containing the doctrines of the Christian faith. Not referring to the conversion experience. The conversion experience may vary from Christian to Christian, but the revealed essential doctrines and the truth of the gospel, there is only one.

There is only one way of salvation. We are not saved through man-made sacrifices. We are not saved through the works of man. There is only one way and that is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And if someone preaches you a different gospel, flee from it. Run away from it. There is only one faith in one Lord, and there is no other name under heaven given among man by which we must be saved. There is one baptism. Now, this is a difficult one because at first glance this is a controversial topic. Churches obviously differ as to the outward modes of baptism. Some do sprinkling, some do immersion. But obviously, Paul is not referring to the outward modes of baptism over here. But then what is Paul talking about?

Well, he’s intending something deeper than that. He’s referring to what baptism represents and signifies. It signifies that our sins has been washed by the birth of Christ. It signifies that we are now under the leadership of Christ and we have pledged our allegiance to Him. Now a quick reference to First Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1:10- “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, that there may be no divisions among you (again Paul is talking about unity), but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement. For”.

In verse 11, “for it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptised in the name of Paul?”. Now you see the rhetorical questions Paul is asking here to make a point. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Are you baptised in the name of Paul? Obviously not! We are baptised in the name of Christ. We have pledged our allegiance to Him. We are under His leadership. We are under that sphere which is Christ.

Acts 2:38- “Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptised in the name of Christ”. Acts 19:5- “When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of Christ.”. We are all baptised in the name of Christ. There is only one name unto which we were baptised. One baptism. One baptism unto Christ, which signifies that we are now entering into the leadership of Christ. We are under His sphere of influence. We are under His leadership. We are declaring our allegiance to Him. Formerly we belong to the world, but now we belong to Christ. There is one baptism. And finally, there is one God. Paul made mention of the Holy Spirit when he says there is one Spirit. And then he mentions about Christ, there is one Lord.

And now he comes to the climax, there is one God. Yes, there is only one God, but let us not forget that God is One. There is the Holy Spirit, there is Christ, there is the Father, but God is One. And this is truly a mystery. But Paul doesn’t stop there. He says that there is “one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all.”. The ‘all’ here obviously is not referring to all of creation. It’s referring to all true believers. All Christians, all those who’re elected by God. He is the God of all Christians of all churches or true Christians. We all worship that one God, that same God. He alone is the centre and the focus of our worship.

He is the Father of all who are true believers. And it would be illogical that there would be disunity among His people. “There is one body, one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all.” It is logical to keep this unity because of what we have in common. Now I’d like to close with a solemn warning to those who do not keep this unity. Let no divisive man be found in church. Paul has, in other passages, warn us not to keep company with those who are divisive.

1 Corinthians 5:11, do not keep company with a slanderer. Don’t keep company with him. Romans 16:17, to those who cause divisions, avoid them. Avoid those who cause divisions. And a stronger warning in Titus 3:9-11, avoid foolish disputes. Avoid foolish disputes, “for they are unprofitable and useless”. Reject a divisive man. This is a very strong warning here: “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition”. After two warnings, reject this man, “knowing that such a person is self-condemned”. And divisiveness is such a sin that we are to reject this kind of people. Mark those among us who are causing divisions in the church and have nothing to do with them.

A divisive person is condemned in Titus 3 and shall not see the kingdom of God. Many church divisions and disunity are often God’s judgement upon His people to those churches who continue to have fellowship with divisive people, to those churches who rather keep them instead of carrying out the dirty work of church discipline. And may we heed the warnings here in Scripture that we are not to have fellowship with divisive people. But rather, let us take heed in Paul’s instruction here in Ephesians 4 that we ourselves are not divisive people. Let us take heed to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. And may we bring glory to God’s name. Let us close in prayer.

“Our Father in heaven, we thank You for reminding us of a very important subject of unity. O Lord, we know that this is something that we need consciously with diligence to maintain the unity of the Spirit with fellow believers. And I pray, O Lord, that there may be no persons or people who are divisive in the church. O Lord, help us to examine ourselves whether we are divisive people. Teach us, O Lord, to be humble, to be gentle, to be longsuffering, and to bear with our fellow brothers and sisters, to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. And may Your name be glorified in all these things, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.